If you've browsed the web, looking for some specialized material on American religious history or
obscure fantasy fiction, you may have come across a few of the many web-pages I've created or
contributed to. The one you are looking at now is my personal information space -- a place where
I can present a few odds and ends about myself in an informal sort of way.

My first venture into web-publishing had a very humble beginning. In 1981 I was visiting with the
late Vernal Holley, of Roy Utah, and
discussing ways of placing our respective Mormon historical research before the public. An early model
personal computer was in the room and it occurred to me that we might store our notes, papers,
pre-publication texts, etc. as word processor files on the then unfamiliar new machine. A decade later,
while living on the island of Saipan, I began to convert a few dozen of those typed files into
hyper-text on a couple of networked Macintosh computers. When internet service arrived in that remote
part of the Pacific, I already had a hundred such texts prepared, with accompanying graphics -- all of
which were easily translated into web-documents. Thus began a little "after work" hobby which has
metastasized today into hundreds of web-pages, with contents ranging from investigations of
Egyptian goddesses, to illustrations for the
writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs, to early nineteenth
century news articles on Kirtland, Ohio and Nauvoo, Illinois.

These days I am retired and live on the Big Island of Hawaii. Due to hampering disabilities I nowadays
do very little research and writing -- unfortunately. The good news is that I still have two file
cabinets full of interesting old stuff that I haven't even begun to prepare for web presentation. I
only spend an hour or two at the computer each day; so, at the rate I'm now proceeding, I probably
have sufficient material on hand to keep my hobby going for another ten years.

Idaho Falls, Idaho -- Where I Grew Up

More Information About My Web Work

I've put together my collection of web-pages with a certain amount of trepidation -- not so much because of the
nature of their subject matter, but because I value my privacy and have always had an aversion to calling much
attention to myself.

Perhaps this reluctant feeling comes from my having grown up as an outsider in the very close-knit society of
small-town Idaho during the second half of the 1900's. Though not a member of the locally predominant church
myself, I was always interested in the stories those Mormons told of my ancestor,
Samuel Thomas Winegar, who joined their ranks near Kirtland, Ohio in 1833. He and his family
lived in the mission field frequented by Elder
D. Philatus Hurlbut, the Mormon missionary who
discovered and first publicized the "Spalding Story." Samuel's brother-in-law, Andrews Tyler (father of Elder
Daniel Tyler), was the first
member to leave the Mormon Church over the Spalding authorship claims for the origin of the Book of Mormon.
Samuel was also a neighbor of Elder Benjamin Winchester, the first Latter Day Saint author to write extensively
on those authorship claims. Since they came from the same area where Spalding wrote his tales, and from the same
time and place where the Spalding authorship claims first appeared, some members of my family have always held
an interest in this historical oddity -- myself included.

In 1979 I entered the Methodist Theological School in Ohio and became the second RLDS (Reorganized Latter Day
Saint) ever to attend the seminary and the first to graduate from that fine institution with a Masters degree
(in 1981). While at "Methesco" I spent a good deal of time at nearby
Oberlin College and was able to examine the old Spalding romance
manuscript on file in the Oberlin Archives. My
initial "Mormon origins" research at Oberlin eventually developed into my Masters' project at Methesco. In
lieu of a thesis I wrote a dozen graduate papers on the "Spalding Theory" and I later presented some of my
findings in professional papers devoted to the textual similarities between the Oberlin romance and the Book
of Mormon, the apostasy of Elder D. Philatus Hurlbut,
etc.

Serving as an Educational Volunteer -- in The Kingdom of Nepal, 1985

Putting my research notes and papers aside, I left the USA in 1983 to serve a non-proselytizing
"mission" as an educational volunteer in South Asia & the Pacific. While working in Nepal, I completed
the donation process to have my research papers put
on file at the Marriott Library in Utah.
Following my adventures in the Himalayas I spent a short time with the RLDS Mission in Osaka,
Japan -- then moved on with one of the Osaka elders to do educational volunteer work in Taipei,
Taiwan. This endeavor expanded into a college level position and eventually extended into educational
research and development work in Micronesia. My overseas contributions continued until 1997, when I
retired from my duties as an academic researcher on a small Pacific island and moved to Hawaii. I now
live with my wife, Elizabeth, in the town of Hilo, a half-hour away from my grandchildren and light
years away from the hectic world of 21st century life.

Although I'm disabled and no longer gainfully employed, I'm happy that I now have the time and resources
to put my old research papers in proper order. I continue to make some of the more interesting bits and
pieces of that collection available for viewing on the web. The pace I've set in managing and updating
such virtual undertakings as the Spalding Studies Home Page, "Uncle Dale's" Old Mormon News Articles,
etc. is decidedly relaxed. Some of may many web-pages will no doubt gather dust, for many months, while
I pursue whatever new venture has currently caught my fancy. Much of what I offer on-line are merely
preliminary postings -- in time they will evolve, expand, be moved about, and perhaps even disappear.
It is my expectation that one day I can turn the whole set of sites over to other hands. Given my
current progressive health deterioration, I hope that can happen in the near future -- then I'll just
sit back and see what others can develop, without having to write the papers and hack out the html
myself.

Dale June 24, 1998 -- (updated Sept. 15, 2004)

ps:
Here's an old photo taken during my research
days, as a seminarian in Ohio.

The following links access more web-pages featuring various aspects of my creations, studies, and personal
views. Please take the time to browse through the listing provided below -- if you are interested in such
things. Many of the more interesting "goodies" at my sites are stashed away in unpublicized sub-directories.
Perhaps one day I'll summon up enough vigor to create a few site maps. Until then, if you are looking for some
Broadhurstian tidbit not easily located on the web, please contact me for personal assistance. I may not
respond immediately, but I'll try to answer all messages sent my way.

Originally intended as the on-line gateway to my myriad of Mormonism materials,
this personal page now serves as my apology
for journeying through life as an unattached Latter Day Saint. When I get around to transferring my texts
from the old site, I'll gather together here
some artifacts of my personal experiences within the Latter Day Saints' Restoration Movement; including
some web presentations focusing Restoration history and scriptures. The gateway is intended to lead to the
following three sections:

The Saints and their Past(forthcoming)Restoration Scriptures(forthcoming)The Saints and their Future(forthcoming)

DALE R. BROADHURST COLLECTIONS:

Eventually this set of web-pages will cross-index my personal, hard copy collections, as well as research
materials I've donated over the years to various institutional document depositories, including the
University of Utah Marriott Library, The
Community of Christ Library and Archives,
the Oberlin College Archives, etc.